Nelly's 'Hot in Herre' Played Over and Over As Radio Station Market Their Rebranding

It all started at 3pm on Friday afternoon (March 14). Nelly’s popular track, ‘Hot in Herre” started playing – a nice little 3pm treat, many listeners would have thought to themselves. But this was part of something far more cynical. The song has been played on a constant loop as part of a marketing campaign, which will see Latino Mix FM 105.7 rebranded as Hot 105.7.

Is Nelly getting some unexpected publicity?

We checked and it’s still playing right now. Based on some simple and potentially flawed maths, it’s been playing for around 70 hours, which would make the total number of plays – considering the song is around 4 minutes long – 1050. They’ve played Nelly’s Hot in Herre one thousand and fifty times. Approximately.

Of course, when Twitter users found out they were looping Nelly’s famous song, things started trending. People started talking about their addiction to the station, saying they simply ‘can’t not’ listen anymore. Others commented on their increased knowledge of the song’s lyrics. Makes sense.

There were also many theories expounded as to why the song was on loop, like an angry DJ who had either quit or been sacked, and decided to utilise his own brand of Nelly-based revenge. Or technical difficulties, which is a pretty tough one to believe when you consider how easy it would be to fix that particular problem. Is dead air better then constant Nelly?

Songs on repeat on the airwaves isn’t a new thing. The Toronto radio station Indie 88 “soft launched” at noon on July 31, and tested its signal at an FM frequency that has been silent for over two years. But before it kicked off with regular programming, those who bothered to tune in were subject to one song and one song only, over and over and over again: Rick Astley’s 1987 hit “Never Gonna Give You Up.” FOR ONE WHOLE WEEK. The move is known as “stunting”